INDIANAPOLIS — Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks often speak about working best in synergy, one receiver opening up big-play opportunities for the other. If the Giants can work it out, they’d like it to be that way for a while.

But it won’t be easy. Cruz is a restricted free agent this year, and Nicks is due to be an unrestricted free agent after next season. The Giants must determine if they have the resources to award new contracts to both players in a year’s time — with a salary cap expected to be relatively flat, no less.

"They’re both priorities for us. They’re both terrific players," co-owner John Mara said Thursday between meetings at the NFL Scouting Combine. "We hope they’re both Giants for a long time."

An ESPN report earlier this month said the Giants have prioritized Nicks, their first-round pick in 2009, over Cruz, the former undrafted free agent who posted back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and set a franchise record for single-season receiving yards in 2011.

"I don’t know where that came from; that’s not true at all," Mara said. "They’re both priorities for us."

Nicks generally plays the "X" receiver position, the spot most often occupied by a team’s No. 1 receiver, but his explosiveness has been limited by injuries, most recently knee and foot ailments that held him to 692 receiving yards last season. Cruz has been a dynamic playmaker, often working out of the slot position, though the Giants have been able to replenish after losing talent at the spot (Steve Smith, for example).

Since Cruz is a restricted free agent this year, the Giants could retain him with a one-year tender, but they have been working toward a long-term deal. Mara said earlier this month in New Orleans that "there is a limit" on what they can pay Cruz, adding that what Cruz’s agent is asking for is unreasonable "right now." But he was still optimistic the sides could strike a deal.

"Nothing has changed," Mara said. "He’ll hopefully be back with us next year, and hopefully at some point, we’ll have an agreement with him."

Coach Tom Coughlin is under contract through 2014, and Mara believes he'll finish that pact out -- at least.

"I have no reason to think otherwise," Mara said. "He hasn’t given me any indication otherwise. This is what he does. I think he’s got too much fire left to retire at this point, but you’ll have to ask him that."

After the Super Bowl XLVI championship, Coughlin signed an extension with the Giants. Mara reiterated that he and Coughlin, 66, have not had any discussions about a retirement timetable.

"He has never said that to me, and that’s not an issue for us right now," Mara said. "I just don’t see him retiring very quickly. I think he’s still got a lot of energy left in him, and he still wants to win as much as anybody, so hopefully he’ll continue coaching for a number of years. But that ultimately is going to be up to him."

Left tackle Will Beatty is one of the Giants' top free agents, and the team would like to bring him back, Mara said. Beatty has made 31 starts since being drafted in the second round in 2009.

"Oh definitely. We want him back," Mara said. "I guess we could, if we wanted to, use the (franchise) tag on him, but I don’t know that I see that happening."

Tag amounts are tied into the 2013 salary-cap number, which has not been announced, but a tag for an offensive linemen will reportedly be around $9.66 million. Mara said the Giants hope they can work out a deal with Beatty -- as opposed to using the tag, which would be cap-unfriendly.

"He’s a good player," Mara said. "We think he’s an ascending player, and he’s somebody we’d like to have on our team."

The Redskins used quotes from Mara to motivate them before the teams' Monday Night Football game in December, ESPN reported at the time. Mara, the chairman of the NFL's management committee, was party to the decision to penalize the Redskins for their spending during the uncapped year by subtracting $36 million in salary-cap space in 2012 and 2013.

The topic resurfaced recently with the Redskins entering another year with docked salary-cap space, so we wondered what Mara thought of the Redskins posting his quotes about the penalties on the coaches' office doors leading up to the game?

"I didn’t know I was such a good motivational speaker. I guess I’ll have to speak to the guys in our locker room now," Mara quipped.

He added, "That didn’t bother me. What it told me was that our guys had done a pretty good job at keeping their quotes down to a minimum, because if they had to use my quotes... But no, that didn’t bother me. I thought it was more amusing than anything else."

The Redskins won that game, 17-16, as part of their charge to an NFC East title and a postseason bid.